Downsizing

This is my last night in the house in Forest Town - tomorrow I'll move my one suitcase and five boxes of stuff to a third-storey flat a bit further north - deeper into the enclave of the privileged rich - between the Rosebank Mall and the Sandton City Mall (these are the major reference points). I've failed to settle down here - I wasn't getting used to the bars on the windows, the electric fence going off in the rain, and the night-time return home fearing the dreaded "driveway robbery". I'm moving to a guarded complex, which also has ahigh wall, an electric fence, cctv cameras etc. PLUS a guard on the gate - but at least my flat is above this ground-level security system - so there are no bars on the windows, no "trellies" on the doors, no alarm system to go off whenever it feels like it - and there's a clear view of the sky and trees in the gardens across the road. Oh, and there's also a communal swimming pool, which will come in handy over Christmas (ho ho ho).

I suspect my fellow expats think I'm wimping out - why settle for 80 square metres when you can have 300 and a live-in maid and a gardener? You just need to wear your panic button around your neck all the time and you'll be fine. Well I don't need that much space - and I'll still have a spare bedroom for visitors; and a few pot plants will satisfy my rudimentary need for contact with nature. I'll miss the garden here a bit - but the main attraction is the birds (yellow, red, long-tailed, crested, etc), and I'm told that they'll come to a bird feeder on a balcony - they don't need a garden either as long as they can eat. I'll be much happier feeling that once I've closed my front door I'm safe and don't need to worry about invaders coming through the windows. Better a safe wimp than a brave potential victim, that's what I think.

Above: a resident in the garden; and a rainbow above the garden this afternoon after a massive storm - the storms are spectacular here.